Highway blocked in Rajouri, minor violence reported

Following the bandh call given by the BJP and other organisations to protest violence at Kishtwar on Friday, protesters blocked the Jammu-Poonch highway and burnt tyres at Sailani bridge, Muradpur, Bathooni, Kallar, Sunderbani, Noushera and other places on Saturday.

Following the bandh call given by the BJP and other organisations to protest violence at Kishtwar on Friday, protesters blocked the Jammu-Poonch highway and burnt tyres at Sailani bridge, Muradpur, Bathooni, Kallar, Sunderbani, Noushera and other places on Saturday.

At Sunderbani and Siot, protesters damaged three Tata Sumos ferrying passengers from Poonch to Jammu, but no injuries were reported.

"No violence has been reported in the entire district, except for damage to three small passenger vehicles in Sunderbani," a senior police officer claimed.

In Rajouri, anti-government rallies were taken out by BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal, ABVP and BJYM activists, demanding immediate sacking of state home minister Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo, who, they alleged, was present in Kishtwar when miscreants razed a market of a minor community and killed a youth.

BJP state vice-president Vibodh Gupta and Karan Thakur of Bajrang Dal criticised the state government for failing to provide security to the minorities, and demanded that the state home minister be arrested.